Here's a (older) picture or the Portner truck referred to in the discussion forum. Bshoesey






This note was posted on the Yahoo FWD site ( listed on a link below ). I thought it was very interesting and of great interest to our FWD fans. I'll invite him to join this site. Bill

Name's Bob Horton. My stepdad was John R; Horton of Appleton, WI. Dad was the Southwest Sales Manager for FWD from the late 40's until he died Christmas eve of 1959. He sold an awful lot of FWD units including fire trucks to the mountain states, special huge tire all-terrain vehicles to the Army and...he opened and retained the Halliburton account for FWD out of his "temporary" office in the Longhorn Motel in Duncan, Oklahoma. I grew up surrounded by big red FWD firetrucks, grey/green military units and red and grey Halliburton off-roaders...and the men who bought and drove them. They were pretty much all John Wayne, Red Adair types who smoked like chimneys, drank like there was no tomorrow, made good money and loved to spend it. ;-)

I'm not the mechanic or restoration buff that many of you seem to be; don't know what I'd do storagewise or financially do if the chance to buy one of "Dad's trucks" came up. But, it's nice to know that there are those of you out there who treasure your FWD's and revere the spirit and the legend of trucks that have quietly made such a difference in our country.

One funny story you might enjoy is that Dad loved it when he got the chance to compete in field trials against FWD's competitors. He always asked for his FWD unit to be the last to be tested...cuz he loved it when the bright red, shiny, factory new FWD unit had to go into the mud, pass its test...and then drag the sorry ass competitor unit out of the mud pit too!

Thanks for being here!

;-)

Bob Horton















This truck was recently listed for sale by auction but disappeared from the auction website. Probably a Waukesha gas 145GZ (?) in the chassis and Cummins 270 powering the rear. The auction site for PennDoT and other Pennnsylvania agencies is

I check this periodically to see what gems are up for sale this month. Listings include PennDoT, the Turnpike and General Services, along with many other municipal auctions.